Recap: Cavs 89, Pacers 99 (or, this ain’t easy street)

Well, Cavs fans, we are at the intersection of Patience Drive, Reason Street, and Excuses Boulevard…but let’s wait until tomorrow’s outcome to talk about that.

Tonight, I will keep this brief. Anderson Varejao took a breather tonight, and T-Zell started in his place.

Cleveland hung tight early, tied after one quarter by a score of 23 to 23. Zeller struggled early with 2012 All-Star Roy Hibbert. The Big Hoya scored eight in the first stanza.

Early in the next frame, success resulted as per usual; C.J. Miles made three jumpers for seven points in 75 seconds. Also, Dion threaded a bad-ass dime to Tristan for dunk. Tyler Zeller threw down a nasty dunk, and the Cavs carried a 45 – 44 lead at the half.

The third quarter is where things started to unravel. David West, Paul George, and Roy Hibbert combined for twenty-three and Cleveland offered few amusing plays. The Pacers mounted a double-digit lead.

The fourth quarter was, ummmm, worse. The Cavs fell behind by eighteen before staging a 9-to-1 rally in the final minute.

A few notes:

This was Waiters’ best game since returning. He looked to attack, and threaded seven dimes, including the no-look gem. His shooting must improve, but the offense doesn’t generate many easy looks for him.

Leuer was on the active-roster, but instead we got 27 minutes, 6 points, and 3 rebounds from Samardo and Kevin Jones. I am still not completely sure why Leuer played in only three non-garbage games before bench-time.

Alas, Kyrie can not do everything; 17 points on 45% true shooting with 5 assists and 6 turnovers.

Tristan undoubtedly reigned as tonight’s MVP. 12 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks; he capably defended West and Hibbert, and finished a commendable amount of righty-shots. Well played, Mr. T.

I was able to get some seats four rows from the floor tonight and I noticed a few things I hadn’t really seen before. 1. Kyrie was pretty frusterated with having to play off the ball while Waiters ran the show. 2. The rookies rookie mistakes really kill the Cavs. I also have an observation and a question. Observation: anyone who thinks Zeller is a better player than TT is crazy. Question: What did Omri Casspi do besides get food poisoning to lose his rotation spot? The shot selection and defense of CJ Miles is infuriating.

Agree Tristan Thompson was beast! Scott should have played him more minutes. His experience showed tonight against the bigs. I really think he could have gotten more points. This is the first time I was saying TT needs to go back in. They played better with him in. You could see the improvement. Zellar was lost at times and made many turnovers. I still wish Scott would please release Pargo to make some points for us. Only 2 complaints with Scott. The rest was turnovers that killed us. I was gald he let Andy rest and heal.

Maybe it was nothing, but during the game it looked like Kyrie and Scott were arguing. Then in the presser, Scott responds to media stating he didn’t feel like Kyrie was engaged in the game. #brokedownpalace

The rest of the bigs need to play with more passion. Thompson was the ONLY guy on the court pursuing offensive rebounds. No one else even tried (as evidence by the fact that he was the only guy with multiple offensive boards). He and Varejao are the only two guys on the entire team who make rebounding any sort of priority.

I looked at the starting lineup tonight before the game and decided to do some stat work. Maybe this was already done here, but I thought I’d roll out this shocking statistic.

Total # of NBA games played by the Cavs starting five tonight: 357
Total # of NBA games played by the Pacers starting five tonight: 1,488

And the Pacers are one of the younger teams in the league. Only David West is over 30.

Look, I’m all about getting the new guys some PT, but if we want Kyrie to learn better habits, he needs to play with a few vets.

How about this starting lineup, once everyone is healthy. Kyrie, Gibson, AV, Casspi, and CJ. True, we’d be pretty thin down low, but at least we’d have a few weapons around the perimeter. Personally, Dion is not a weapon unless he has time to decide. And Tristan, as cool a guy as he seems to be, looks more and more like a newly modeled JJ. Hickson. And with this lineup, we could pick up the tempo, because no matter how we twist the lineup, we will never be a defensive powerhouse.

How about the BS Psycho T segment, where he slaps the ball out of Tristan’s hand on a dead ball, completely escalating a benign situation, and Tyler and Gibson inexplicably get called for double techs? Why Tristan was called for a tech, I’ve no idea. THEN Hansborough undercuts and purposely gets tangled with TT on a made freethrow resulting in a double foul and then a jump ball (WTF?). Green posterizes a dunk and stares down the Cavs bench, and gets called for a tech, which Kyrie MISSES. So, in case you were counting that’s a 4 point possession on some absolutely BS refereeing. There comes a point when Byron Scott being completely absent on this becomes just bad coaching. He should have had TT’s back here. The fact that he didn’t stick up for him at all leads to a team that consistently gets bullied because no one stands up for themselves. The coach should have players’ backs no matter what. The concept being: I can call my brother out all day long, but if you call my brother out, you have a problem with my brother and me. The Pacers play like that. The Cavs don’t. Thought this was the segment that set the tone for the whole fourth quarter.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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